It’s not terribly surprising that they’re surprised. I’ll never forget how, after a Muslim terrorist shot up a Jewish Center in Seattle, the L.A. Times ran a box on the front page saying that the gunman’s motive was a “mystery”:

The story contained clues, such as the fact that the gunman targeted the Jewish Center after conducting a “cursory Internet search for Jewish organizations.” Or the witness who said the man had screamed “I am a Muslim American, angry at Israel!” before opening fire.

I swear I am not making up those facts, or the fact that the L.A. Times declared the gunman’s motives a “mystery” in the face of that evidence.

The AP reports that some view Obama’s election as proof the black civil rights struggle is over and believe now it’s time for the focus to be on gay rights:

“The gay rights movement entered a new era when Barack Obama was elected the first black president the same day that voters in California and Florida passed referendums to prevent gays and lesbians from marrying, while Arizonans turned down civil unions and Arkansans said no to adoptions by same-sex couples.

Racism was defanged by Obama’s triumph, leaving gays as perhaps the last group of Americans claiming that their basic rights are being systematically denied.”

It would help gays to have black support but I doubt that will happen since few blacks support same-sex marriage and it’s unclear how many agree their civil rights struggle is over.

An Obama win coupled with the loss of these initiatives must make gays feel like they took one step forward and two steps back … but I don’t see any evidence that Obama will be a strong advocate for same-sex marriage. It sounds like the formula for an unhappy partnership.

The Indian doctors at the Mumbai hospital where the dead Jewish hostages were taken say the hostages were tortured:

“The other doctor, who had also conducted the post-mortem of the victims, said: “Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the 26th itself. It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again,” he said.”

The dead terrorists at the Jewish Center were also mutilated:

“The doctors who conducted the post mortem said the bodies of the terrorists were beyond recognition. “Their faces were beyond recognition.”

There was no way of identifying them,” he said. Asked how, if this is the case, they knew the bodies were indeed those of the terrorists, he said: “The security forces that brought the bodies told us that those were the bodies of the terrorists,” he said, adding there was no other way they could have identified the bodies.

An intelligence agency source added: “One of the terrorists was shot through either eye.”

A senior National Security Guard officer, who had earlier explained the operation in detail to rediff.com, said the commandos went all out after they ascertained that there were no more hostages left. When asked if the commandos attempted to capture them alive at that stage, he replied: “Unko bachana kaun chahega (Who will want to save them)?”

One of the reasons terrorism is so dangerous to society is that it targets innocents in ways that are both cruel and public. This not only enrages us but also makes us feel powerless, feelings that are more likely to lead to revenge against the terrorists and those who help them. And who, indeed, will want to save them?

(Note: “Now You Tell Us”™ is a semi-regular feature of this site, documenting examples of the Los Angeles Times’s disclosure of negative information about Barack Obama that didn’t come out during the election.)

The L.A. Times reveals a truth many of us already knew, but that the electorate at large evidently did not — namely, that Obama’s course is not likely to be centrist:

Labor unions, environmentalists and other liberal groups are eagerly preparing for new confrontations with business and conservative interests. They feel secure in having allies in Washington’s power centers, 14 years after Democrats last controlled Congress and the White House. (And some consider the exile even longer, dating from Ronald Reagan’s 1980 election, because President Clinton’s course was largely centrist and he had only two years with a Democratic majority in Congress.)

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